Review by Chronata
Ah the Connolly tarot... I know a few people who
absolutely rave about this deck, and I know quite a few
others who absolutely detest it. Me?....I'm somewhere in
the middle. Normally I wouldn't bother to write a
reveiw for a deck that I feel kind of apathetic and
"middle of the road" about, but this deck merits some
appreciation from me because I actually use it often in
professional readings.
Those of you out there who also do
readings for the public, in varied places, might understand
where I'm coming from. There have been occasions where
I have been booked as a psychic reader in the most
unlikely places... taverns, mall openings, church socials,
spaghetti dinners, etc. And often in these places,I would
come across people who equate "Tarot" with "Occult" and
therefore with "evil". These are the times, when I call
what I do "Angel Readings", and I pull out a couple of
Angel Oracle decks... and the Connolly.
What I like about the Connolly is that there are no "bad" cards. The
images and the symbolism are all colorful and light and
positive, and for the most part, people don't even realize
that I am reading with a Tarot deck at all.
Both Death and the Devil have been renamed and transformed. (into
Transition and Materialism, respectively.) The Ten of Swords,
and for that matter, the whole suit of swords looks a
little less intense, and a whole lot easier to
swallow.
The deck has been loosely based on the images of the
Rider-Waite... and I really have to stress the term "loosely" because
of a couple of card images that have been oddly
reworked in a confusing, and unfathomable way. Some
cards have drawings that actually remind me so strongly
of the images from different cards, that they can be
distracting.
For instance, on the 8 of swords,in the Connolly,
there is a picture of a man looking out of a leaded
glass window at the hilts of swords sticking out of the
snow... which puts me in mind of the Rider-Waite card of the 5
of Pentacles (stained glass window, people in the
snow) certainly more than the R/W 8 of swords (woman
bound, blindfolded and surrounded by swords).
I guess I
can see where the artist was going with the symbolism,
but when I'm used to seeing a certain deck of
images, that *most* of the other cards in this deck also relate
to, it can be a little jarring. The 5 of Wands is
similar, in that it reminds me of the Rider-Waite 6 of
swords (a man in a boat full of tall objects heading
towards the shore). And then there are a couple where I
have *no* idea what symbology the artist had in mind,
for the meaning of the card.
Like the 4 of swords,
which pictures a man looking over a little garden wall
and gate at four swords and a chest of money. Eh?
I just don't get it.
Now, the way this deck works for
me, and my angel readings, is fairly simple. I use it
as an enhancement for the other angel decks, and as a
symbolic crutch to open up my psychic channels and receive
other images.
I suppose if someone were looking for a
nice oracle card deck, that wasn't too scary, or needed
to sneak a deck into, say, a disapproving household,
with people who find Tarot to be too negative, then
this is not a bad deck to work with.
However, for
serious or advanced Tarot study, I can't say that I would
recommend it... unless you happen to do a lot of readings for
the church ladies monthly AA group, like Me :)
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